Of course we didn’t know all this in November. ESPN the Magazine had Maryland as the 7^th ranked team in the country. We only had to play Wake Forest and National runner-up Georgia Tech once. And after rolling over then #25 Memphis in the season opener, the possibilities seemed endless.

Then came the Wisconsin game. After watching Wisconsin/Maryland the past couple years, I’ve learned something. There are no benefits to playing a Big 10 team early in the season. Actually, check that, there are no benefits to playing a Big 10 team at any point of the season. What Wisconsin does is they make you play their style of basketball: slow, boring possessions, drawn out timeouts, and offensive sets where a good possession results in a shot-clock violation. Maryland got beat in a close game that night, and while at the time it was just one loss, it appeared that for the rest of the season they forgot how to run an offense and have fun while playing the game. Basically, we turned into the University of Wisconsin at College Park.

Our fears were confirmed less then a week later, getting beat by George Washington in the finals of the BB&T Classic. We had trouble closing out Florida State and American… at home. They were playing sloppy, poor basketball and it showed when both North Carolina and Wake Forest waxed them on a trip down Tobacco Road. After two not very satisfying wins over Temple and Virginia, N.C. State came to town and thoroughly embarrassed us. I remember thinking. “This is by far, the low point of the season.” Little did I know what was in store for us later.

In classic Maryland fashion, they travel to Duke the following Tuesday and proceed to become the only team to beat the Blue Devils in Cameron this year. It was after that game that my fears were confirmed. Maryland was officially a team that played to the level of its competition. How else could a team go to Durham and get a win, and then travel to lowly Clemson and lose by 15? (Note: the only thing more painful, and more harmful to your health then rooting for a team like this, is 12 hours worth of dental surgery).

One of the lone bright spots in 2005 for Maryland came a couple weeks later, when Duke came into town for the much-anticipated rematch. ESPN’s College Gameday graced us with their presence and the eyes of the whole college basketball world were suddenly on College Park. I remember half the student body nervous that since we had already beaten Duke once, that we would lose that game; the other half confident that if we could beat them down there, then we would have no problem up here; but all of us eager for the game to start. It was the most anticipated game of the season, and it showed: in my four years here, I never remember Comcast louder (in fact, the only game louder was the 2002 game against Duke at Cole). Gilchrist played his best game of the season, coming one assist shy of a triple-double. Gary Williams coached his best game of the season going after Duke inside late in the game and in overtime, knowing they had no bench. Even the students were well behaved (for the most part) and did a good job of repelling the ugly reputation that was sprayed on them last year.